- Location
- Archaeological site of Al-Balat Spain
- Year
- 2025 – 2026
- Format
- Immersive self-guided visit experience with geolocation
- Status
- Available on app stores
The site
Al-Balât is an actively excavated archaeological site. Unlike a monument, it offers visitors no façade, no volume, no spectacular viewpoint — only ground-level outlines, razed walls, and marked excavation zones.
And yet what unfolds here is remarkable: a medieval settlement at the frontier of Christian and Muslim worlds, little-known rural practices, and more than two centuries of human occupation. This history lies beneath the soil, and it is not yet fully understood — each excavation campaign refines it, and sometimes revises it.
Following a major heritage enhancement programme funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, Al-Balât is now preparing to open its doors to the public.
For interpretation, the challenge is twofold: bringing meaning to remains that are difficult to read at first glance, and conveying knowledge that continues to evolve with each excavation season.
our mission
How do you engage visitors with a site that is hard to read and a story still being written?
the challenges
Methodology
Co-creation & VX Design
Analysis of target audiences, archaeological content, and the site itself, in order to design a clear, accessible itinerary adapted to the constraints of an active excavation.
Content Production
Creation of narratives, interface, and sonic universe to deliver an immersive and accessible experience.
App Development & Systems
Development of the Ekko application, with geolocation and content triggering, followed by on-site testing.
Implementation & Impact Assessment
Reception study during open days, recommendations to institutions ahead of opening, and ongoing technical maintenance of the application.
The approach
Journey
Discover the site, fragment by fragment
The visit takes the form of an exploration. As they move through the site, visitors reach nine geolocated zones that progressively reveal themselves on the map. At each stop, they collect a fragment: a new piece of Al-Balât's story, adding to those already discovered.
In the absence of suitable digital mapping for the site, a custom map was designed from field surveys to enable geolocation.
Fragment #2
Como en casa
anatomy of a fragment
A narrative built layer by layer
Each fragment is a composite object, conceived as a score where voices, atmospheres, soundscapes and music respond to one another to give shape to a single sonic scene.
Here, the narrator describes a typical Al-Balât house, while layered soundscapes bring to life the activities that shaped everyday existence. Break down the fragment to discover how each layer contributes to the scene.
The site needed a captivating narrative to reach as wide an audience as possible, while highlighting the work of the men and women behind each of these discoveries.
a journey through time
When the hourglass tips
With a single gesture, the visitor moves from the 12th century to the archaeological site of today. The sands of time accompany the transition: the map shifts in colour, landmarks transform, and a new reading of the place emerges.
Two eras layered over the same territory, between a sensitive reconstruction of the past and the perspective of today's archaeologists.
In pictures
The site, from the visitors' perspective
A few images of the tour, its installation and its first visitors.
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They experienced it
What visitors are saying.
« The experience was very immersive. »
« I found the experience brilliant and very stimulating. »
« I found it spectacular!!! »
« The voice of the past is brilliant. The app is very well done. »
« The audio is very well crafted and really helps recreate life as it was back then. It also brings some very interesting knowledge. »
« I leave this place with the feeling of having learned some very interesting things about Arab culture. »
« I will listen to it again soon to refresh my memory. »
« Because it is an immersion into the past of our region, very well documented and fascinating. »
« I found both the texts and their atmospheric staging excellent. »
« Having an audio guide is strongly recommended, as without it I would not have understood nearly as much. »
« Many thanks. CONGRATULATIONS! »
« It was very interesting and fun. »
« I hope we will soon be able to discover other parts of this story. »
Press coverage
What they said about it
It is a little-studied episode in the history of Extremadura, which has been preserved in an exceptional way.
La Voz de ExtremaduraSeptember 2026The two tours can be listened to independently or combined. An "hourglass" feature will allow visitors to freely switch between time periods during the visit, moving from the present to the past and back again.
HOYSeptember 2026The aim is to test the new routes and resources before Madinat Al-Balat regularly opens its doors, with guided tours and daily schedules yet to be defined.
Canal ExtremaduraSeptember 2026Scientific publications
The project in research
- 2026
Acoustic Reconstruction of the Hammam of Albalat: A Methodological Approach
De Muynke, J., Rossi, D., Pardoen, M., Gilotte, S., & Gómez Cabeza, F.
Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on The Acoustics of Ancient Theatre
- 2025
Reconstructing acoustic heritage: Methods and tools for interdisciplinary research and audio-augmented experiences.
De Muynke, J.
Doctoral dissertation, Sorbonne Université.
Project partners/collaborators
